tyres, quot fideles in cœlis, jam triumphant? Let us look on their zeal and courage, and be What a glorious army of saints and martyrs animated, Heb. xii. 1, "Seeing we also are have gone before us! How constant to the compassed about with so great a cloud of death was St Paul? Acts xxi. 13. How witnesses, let us run with patience the race persevering in the faith were Ignatius, Po- that is set before us." The crown is set at lycarp, Athanasius? These were stars in the end of the race; if we win the race, we their orbs,-pillars in the temple of God. shall wear the crown.

A BELIEVER'S PRIVILEGE AT DEATH.

PHIL. i. 21. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

is to exalt Christ, and make the crown upon his head flourish. Now, it may be said, "For us to live is Christ,"—our whole life is a living to Christ.

3. "For me to live is Christ," i. e. Christ is the joy of my life, Ps. xliii. 4, "God my exceeding joy," or the cream of my joy. A Christian rejoiceth in Christ's righteousness; he can rejoice in Christ, when worldly joys are gone; when the tulip in a garden withers,

SAINT PAUL was a great admirer of Christ, | propagate his gospel: the design of our life -he desired to know nothing but Christ and him crucified, 1 Cor. ii. 2. No medicine like the blood of Christ; and in the text, "To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." I."For me to live is Christ." We must understand Paul of a spiritual life. "For me to live is Christ," i. e. Christ is my life: so Greg. Nyssen; or thus, my life is made up of Christ; as a wicked man's life is made up of sin, so Paul's life was made up of Christ, he was full of Christ. But that I a man rejoiceth in his jewels: when relamay give you the sense of the text more fully, take it in these three particulars; 1. Christ is the principle of my life. 2. Christ is the end of my life. 3. Christ is the joy of my life. 1. "For me to live is Christ," i. e. Christ is the principle of my life. I fetch my spiritual life from Christ, as the branch fetcheth its sap from the root, Gal. ii. 20, "Christ liveth in me." Jesus Christ is a head of influence ; he sends forth life and spirits into me, to quicken me to every holy action. Thus, "For me to live is Christ;" Christ is the principle of my life; from his fulness I live, as the vine-branch lives from the

root.

tions die, a saint can rejoice in Christ the pearl of price. In this sense, "For me to live is Christ," he is the joy of my life; if Christ were gone, my life would be a death

to me.

Use. It should exhort us all to labour to
say as the apostle, "For me to live is Christ."
Christ is the principle of my life, the end of
my life, the joy of my life.
"For me to live
is Christ ;" and then we may comfortably
conclude, that to die shall be gain.

of the text, " And to die is gain.”
II. And that brings me to the second part

Doct. To a believer death is great gain. A saint can tell what his losses for Christ are, but he cannot tell how great his gains 2. "For me to live is Christ," i. e. Christ are at death, "To me to die is gain." Death is the end of my life,-I live not to myself to a believer is crepusculum gloriæ,—the but to Christ. So Grotius and Causabon, day-break of eternal brightness. To show Christio servio. “For me to live is Christ:" all my living is to do service to Christ; Rom. xiv. 8, "Whether we live, we live unto the Lord," when we lay out ourselves wholly for Christ. As the factor trades for the merchant, so we trade for Christ's interest, we

2 B

fully what a believer's gains are at death, were a task too great for an angel,—all hyperboles fall short, the reward of glory exceeds our very faith: only let me give you some dark views and imperfect lineaments of that infinite glory the saints shall gain

1. Believers at death shall gain a writ of ease from all sins and troubles; they shall be in a state of impeccability. Sin expires with-but they shall have a royal palace to live their life. I think sometimes what a happy state that will be, never to have a sinful thought more; and they shall have a quietus est from their troubles. Here David cried out, My life is spent with grief, and my years with sighing," Ps. xxxi. 10. Quid est diu vivere, nisi diu torqueri, Ava. Life begins with a cry, and ends with a groan; but at death all troubles die.

1

6. Believers at death shall gain perfection of their crown; they shall gain at death a of holiness. Here grace was but in cunabuli, blessed eternity. If the saints could have -in its cradle, very imperfect; we cannot the least suspicion or fear of losing their write a copy of holiness without blotting; glory, it would much cool and imbitter their believers are said to receive but primitias joy; but their crown fadeth not away, 1 Pet. Spiritus,the first fruits of the Spirit,' v. 4. As the wicked have a worm that never Rom. viii. 22. But at death the saints shall dies, so the elect have a crown that never arrive at perfection,-their knowledge clear, fades. EVER, is a short word, but hath no -their sanctity perfect, their sun shall be in its full meridian splendour. They need not then pray for increase of grace; they shall love God as much as they would love him, and as much as he desires to have them love him; they shall be then, in respect of holiness, as the angels of God.

7. At death the saints shall gain a royal magnificent feast. I told you before what a glorious palace they shall have; but a man may starve in a house, if there be no cheer. The saints at death shall have a royal banquet, shadowed out in scripture by a marriage-supper, Rev. xix. 9. Bullinger and Gregory the Great understand by that marriage-supper of the Lamb, the stately, magnificent festival the saints shall have in heaven; they shall feed on the tree of life, Rev. xxii. They shall have the heavenly nectar and ambrosia," the spiced wine, and the juice of the pomegranate," Cant. viii. 2. This royal supper of the Lamb will not only satisfy hunger but prevent it, Rev. vii. 16, "They shall hunger no more." Nor can there be any surfeit at this feast, because a fresh course will be continually serving; new and fresh delights will spring from God; therefore the tree of life in paradise is said to bear twelve sorts of fruit, Rev. xxii. 2.

ending. Infine erit gaudium sine fine, BERN. 2 Cor. iv. 18, "The things which are not seen are eternal." Ps. xvi. 11, “At thy right hand are pleasures for evermore." Who can span eternity? Millions of ages stand but for cyphers in eternity. This is the elah, or highest strain of the saint's glory; ever in Christ's bosom.

QUEST. How come the saints to have all this gain?

ANS. Believers have a right to all this gain at death upon divers accounts: by virtue of the Father's donation,-the Son's purchase,

the Holy Ghost's earnest, and faith's acceptance. Therefore the state of future glory is called the saint's proper inheritance, Col. i. 12. They are heirs of God, and have a right to inherit.

Use 1st. See the great difference between the death of the godly and the wicked; the godly are gainers at death, the wicked are great losers at death. They lose four things:

(1). They lose the world, and that is a great loss to the wicked; they laid up their treasure upon earth, and to be turned out of it all at once is a great loss.

(2). They lose their souls, Matt. xvi. 26,

27. The soul was at first a noble piece of coin, which God stamped his own image upon; this celestial spark is more precious than the whole globe of the world, but the sinner's soul is lost; not that the souls of the wicked are annihilated at death, but damnified.

8. Believers at death shall gain honour and dignity, they shall reign as kings; therefore we read of the ensigns of their royalty, their white robes and crowns celestial, 1 Tim. iv. 7. We read that the doors of the holy of holies were made ❝ of palm-trees and open flowers, covered with gold," 1 Kings vi. 35: an emblem of that victory and triumph, and that golden garland of honour wherewith God hath invested the saints glorified. When all worldly honour shall lie in the dust,-the mace, the star, the robe of ermine, the im(4). They lose their hopes; for though perial diadem, then shall the saints' honour remain; not one jewel shall be plucked out they lived wickedly, yet they hoped God was

(3). They lose heaven. Heaven is sedes beatorum,—the royal seat of the blessed; it is the region of happiness, the map of perfecThere is that manna which is angels' tion. food; there is the garden of spices, the bed of perfumes, the river of pleasure. Sinners, at death, lose all this.

merciful, and they hoped that they should go to heaven. Their hope was not an anchor, but a spider's web. Now, at death they lose their hopes, they see they did but flatter themselves into hell, Job viii. 14, "Whose hope shall be cut off." That is sad, to have a man's life and his hope cut off together.

saints, desire death; it is your ascension-day to heaven! Egredere, anima egredere! said Hilarion on his death-bed: "Go forth, my soul, what fearest thou?" Another holy man said, "Lord, lead me to that glory which I have seen as through a glass; haste, Lord, and do not tarry!" Some plants thrive best when they are transplanted: believers, when they are by death transplanted, cannot choose but thrive, because they have Christ's sweet sunbeams shining upon them. And what though the passage through the valley of the shadow of death be troublesome? who would not be willing to pass a tempestuous sea, if he were sure to be crowned so soon as he came to shore.

Use 2d. If the saints gain such glorious things at death; then how may they desire death? Doth not every one desire preferment? Nemo ante funera felix. Faith gives a title to heaven, death a possession. Though we should be desirous of doing service here, yet we should be ambitious of being with Christ, Phil. i. 23. We should be content to live, but willing to die. Is it not a blessed thing to be freed from sin, and to Use 3d. Comfort in the loss of our dear lie for ever in the bosom of divine love? Is and pious relations. They, when they die, it not a blessed thing to meet our godly re- are not only taken away from the evil to lations in heaven, and to be singing divine come, but they are great gainers by death,— anthems of praise among the angels? Doth they leave a wilderness, and go to a paradise, not the bride desire the marriage day, espe--they change their complaints into thankscially if she were to be matched unto the crown? What is the place we now live in, but a place of banishment from God? We are in a wilderness, while the angels live at court. Here we are combating with Satan, and should not we desire to be out of the bloody field, where the bullets of temptation fly so fast, and to receive a victorious crown? Think what it will be to have always a smiling aspect from Christ's face,-to be brought into the banqueting-house, and have the banner of his love displayed over you! O ye them.

givings, they leave their sorrows behind, and enter into the joy of their Lord. Why should we weep for their preferment? Believers have not their portion paid till the day of their death: God's promise is his bond to make over heaven in reversion to them; but though they have his bond, they do not receive their portion till the day of death. O rejoice to think of their happiness who die in the Lord! To them "to die is gain;" they are as rich as heaven can make

A BELIEVER'S PRIVILEGE AT DEATH. PHIL. i. 21. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. HOPE is a Christian's anchor which he payment;" Luke xvi. 25, "Son, remember casts within the veil, Rom. xii. 12, "Re- that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good joicing in hope." A Christian's hope is not things;" but a saint's happiness is in reverin this life, but he "hath hope in his death." sion; "The righteous hath hope in his Prov. xiv. 32. The best of a saint's com- death." God keeps the best wine till last. fort begins when his life ends; the wicked If Cato the heathen said, "To me to die is have all their heaven here, Luke vi. 24, gain," he saw mortality to be a mercy: "Wo unto you, rich, you have received then, what may a believer say? Eccl. vii. 1, your consolation." You may make your "The day of death is better than the day acquittance, and write, "Received in full of one's birth." Nemo ante funera felix,

SOLON. A queen of this land said, she pre- the Spirit." It is an inmate that is always ferred her coffin before her cradle.

QUEST. 1. What benefits do believers receive at death?

quarrelling; like Marcellus, that Roman captain, of whom Hannibal said, whether he did beat or was beaten, he would never be quiet. (7). Sin adheres to us, we cannot get rid of it; it may be compared to a wild fig-tree

ANS. 1. They have great immunities.-2. Their bodies are united to Christ in the grave till the resurrection.-3. They pass imme-growing on a wall, though the roots are pulled diately into a state of glory.

up, yet there are some fibres, some strings of it in the joints of the stone-work, which cannot be gotten out. (8). Sin mingles with our duties and graces; we cannot write a copy of holiness without blotting. This makes a child of God weary of his life, and makes him water his couch with his tears, to think sin so strong a party, and he should often offend that God whom he loves; this made Paul cry out Miser ego homo! 'O wretched man that I am!' Hence Paul did not cry out of his affliction, of his prisonchain, but of the body of sin. Now a believer at death shall be freed from sin; he is not taken away in, but from his sins; he shall never have a vain, proud thought more; he shall never grieve the spirit of God any more; sin brought death into the world, and death shall carry sin out of the world. The Persians had a certain day in the year in which they killed all serpents and venomous creatures: such a day will the day of death be to a believer, it will destroy all his sins, which, like so many serpents have stung him. Death smites a believer as the angel did Peter, he made his chains fall off, so death makes all the chains of sin fall off, Acts xii. 7. Be

I. The saints at death have great immunities and freedoms. An apprentice when out of his time is made free: when the saints are out of their time of living, then they are made free,-not made free till death. 1. At death they are freed from a body of sin. There are in the best reliquiæ peccati,-some remainders and relics of corruption, Rom. vii. 24, "O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death?" By the body of death is meant the congeries,-the mass and lump of sin. It may well be called a body for its weightiness, and a body of death for its noisomeness. (1). It weighs us down; sin hinders us from doing good. A Christian is like a bird that would be flying up, but hath a string tied to its legs to hinder it; so he would be flying up to heaven with the wings of desire, but sin hinders him, Rom. vii. 15, "For what I would, that I do not." A Christian is like a ship that is under sail, and at anchor; grace would sail forward, but sin is the anchor that holds it back. (2). Sin is more active in its sphere than grace. How stirring was lust in David, when his grace lay dormant! (3). Sin sometimes gets the mastery and leads a saint captive, Rom.lievers at death are made perfect in holiness, vii. 19, "The evil that I would not, that I do." Paul was like a man carried down the stream, and could not bear up against it. How oft is a child of God overpowered with pride and passion! Therefore Paul calls sin, a law in his members, Rom. vii. 24; it binds as a law; it hath a kind of jurisdiction over the soul as Cæsar had over the senate. (4). Sin defiles the soul,—it is like a stain to beauty,-it turns the soul's azure brightness into sable. (5). Sin debilitates us,-it disarms us of our strength, 2 Sam. iii. 39, "I am this day weak, though anointed king :" so, though a saint be crowned with grace, yet he is weak, though anointed a spiritual king. (6). Sin is ever restless, Gal. v. 17, "The flesh lusts against

Heb. xii. 23, "The spirits of just men made perfect." At death the souls of believers recover their virgin purity. O what a blessed privilege is this, to be sine macula et ruga,— without spot or wrinkle, Eph. v. 27,-to be purer than the sunbeams,―to be as free from sin as the angels! This makes a believer so desirous to have his pass to be gone; he would fain live in that pure air where no black vapours of sin arise.

2. At death the saints shall be freed from all the troubles and incumbrances to which this life is subject. "Sin is the seed sown, and trouble is the harvest reaped." EURIP. Life and trouble are married together; there is more in life to wean us than to tempt us.